I strongly disagree with the…

I strongly disagree with the proposed Bill 68 to amalgamate 36 conservation authorities to 7 regional authorities.
Local Conservation Authorities are extremely important when it comes to reforestation and the environment.
I live adjacent to the past 1971, and 1993 landslides in Eastern Ontario near the now ghost town of Lemieux and have used the South Nation Conservation Authority to plant 8,000 trees on 45 acres to stabilize the land. Their expertise and assistance was critical to this happening. Now I maintain a 20 year Managed Forest Plan which is a wonderful opportunity to help our environment.
Modernization is important but not everything in the province of Ontario needs to be centralize.
Local expertise is very important especially with an issue such as our environment.
With this proposed amalgamation we loose:
• Local expertise could be replaced with distant, top-down decision-making
• Our donated conservation lands could face new land-use rules
• Local parks and trails could eventually see user fees or reduced access
• Emergency response during floods and storms will become slower

Conservation authorities play a very important role in issues such as protecting our homes from flooding, monitoring our rivers and wetlands, supporting our farmers, safeguarding the drinking water sources that we all rely on and maintaining the free public parks and trails we all enjoy year-round. It is critical that this be done at the local level with on site visits and assistance. These issues are not 'Zoom' solvable !!!